Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. But somehow, macos doesnt allow you to write data to the drive.
If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. How to format a pendrive if windows is unable wikihow. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. Aug 16, 2019 on windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. I copied over all my important data from mac and ubuntu laptop in my seagate 1tb hard disk and hp 32 gb pen drive, both formatted as fat32 so that mac, ubuntu and windows can access that data.
The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. If youre using your drive as a secondary windows drive, youll need to choose this option. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Then do a right click with your mouse to pull up a menu. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac.
For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10. Select the disc image to restore on usb drive finally hit on ok to continue. Nov 01, 2011 format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows.
Just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. Second, find a professional pen drive unformat tool as soon as possible. Oct 29, 2019 just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Formatting pen drive is a completely simple task which you can easily perform on your windows computer without using any software but anyhow there are few userfriendly software which allow you to easily format pen drive. Nov 30, 2016 i have got a new thinkpad which runs windows 10, before this i used to have mac and linux laptops.
You can choose the easiest one from any of the methods mentioned below and format bootable usb pen drive using cmd. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. A windows computer, mac, smartphone, xbox and any place that stores data must adopt particular kinds of file systems to read, write, store and organize data on various storage media, including a flash drive, memory card, pen drive, hard drive, hdd or ssd. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active. How to use diskpart to clean and format drive not working on.
A file system is a method and structure of data used by an operating system, called windows, linux or mac os, for reading media files such as disks, removable drives, etc. If you continue to use the pen drive, it will cause failure in unformat pen drive in windows or mac. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable ssd and wanted to use it on your mac. Format usb drive to ntfs in windows 10 all 4 ways easeus. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in. Oct 25, 2015 select the usb drive that you want to format for mac and finally right click on it and hit on format disc for mac.
It will help greatly to recover files from formatted pen drive. To do this, you can take the assistance of disk utility, which is a dedicated system component in mac. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Thats all because its been initialized with windows nt file system ntfs, which is primarily for pcs. Heres how you can convert a bootable pen drive back into a normal one.
The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use the drive on a windows pc, as well as a mac. How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility.
How to format pendrive with command in windows tech maniya. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x. Macs and pcs use different file systems, which can make it tricky to put data from your mac on a flash or hard drive and give it to a windows. Jun 05, 2018 the next step to format a usb pendrive using a mac, will be to select the erase tab and click on the format dropdown box that says msdos fat, thus enabling the pendrive to be compatible with windows.
How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. This article will teach you how to format the usb flash drive so both macs and pcs can read them. Format bootable usb pen drive to make it normal windows and mac. Mar 15, 2018 rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. Step 1 open windows command and run as administrator. Select the usb drive that you want to format for mac and finally right click on it and hit on format disc for mac.
Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. Step 2 type diskpart in the command window and press enter button to move on the. Step6 create bootable usb drive select the usb drive that you want to make it bootable and finally right click on it and hit on restore with disc image. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format write a protected pendrive in mac quora. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. Format bootable usb pen drive to make it normal windows and. Jan 15, 2019 its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on a mac. Dec 05, 2019 rightclick on windows icon, select disk management.
Well show you everything you need to know about the. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Mar 31, 2020 if you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems.
External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. Nov 19, 2015 how to format an external hard drive or pen drive. The next step to format a usb pendrive using a mac, will be to select the erase tab and click on the format dropdown box that says msdos fat, thus. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the internet. Learn how to format your usb flash drive or usb external drive so you can use it on both mac os x and windows computers. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs.
How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows central. I copied over all my important data from mac and ubuntu laptop in my seagate 1tb hard disk and hp 32 gb pen drive, both formatted as fat32 so. Unformat pen drive to recover formatted pen drive data ibeesoft. Mar 27, 2020 this article will help you make the bootable usb pen drive unbootable in windows or mac that too with as many methods we know exist. You can make this your client name or your company name. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Be careful using these instructions to ensure you are formatting the correct disk. How to format internal and or external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. You can follow the alternative command method to format the usb drive with the command line. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. The process will take a few seconds to complete the action.
Mar 30, 2012 here are 3 free software to format pen drive. Apple mac machines support a different file system. If your pen drive is writeprotected you do not be capable to improve computer files or simply style an individuals hard drive as a consequence of. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on a. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop. I have got a new thinkpad which runs windows 10, before this i used to have mac and linux laptops.
Jul 17, 2019 ntfs the default windows operating system format. Oct, 2019 if your pen drive is writeprotected you do not be capable to improve computer files or simply style an individuals hard drive as a consequence of policies connected to permissions together with posting. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. Windows 10 not recognizing my fat32 usb hard disk and pen.
Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro that only has usbc connectors, youll need a usbc to usba adaptor. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux. It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk. This article will help you make the bootable usb pen drive unbootable in windows or mac that too with as many methods we know exist. You cant do it manually or use any windowsmac command line. If the drive comes formatted in ntfs, which is the default file system for windows, youre going to want to reformat the drive because mac os x. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier.